Alcohol in small amounts may improve memory

People over 60 who drink alcohol in small amounts may be helping to boost their memory, according to a new study.

Scientists from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), The University of Kentucky, and the University of Maryland studied cognitive functioning in data from more than 660 patients. All patients did not have a history of alcohol abuse or dementia, and were studied by filling out surveys and undergoing an MRI and neurophysical assessment. The researchers also took into account their risk of Alzheimer’s disease and the role it may play on cognitive function.

The study’s findings, published in the American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias, showed that light alcohol consumption enhanced “episodic memory,” or memory recall. Researchers said one explanation for the findings could be that the adults who were able to consume alcohol in their older age were in good health and may have had better cognitive abilities and larger regional brain volumes, when compared with those who were unable to consume alcohol in older age due to health complications.

Researchers also found that when they factored in the volume of the hippocampus–the region of the brain that controls memory function–the connection between light alcohol consumption and memory function disappeared. Further research into hippocampal function then may be the key to developing new memory improvement techniques, researchers said.

Although experts said this study’s findings are significant, the results were from patients who never had to reduce their alcohol consumption because of unhealthy circumstances or abuse. The researchers warned that long term abuse of alcohol may still harm the brain.

Skin cells turned into brain cells in the lab

By combining skin cells with a group of cell programming molecules, scientists from the Washington University School of Medicine (WUSTL) in St. Louis have found a way to create brain cells.

The study, published in the journal Neuron, is noteworthy in two main ways, researchers said. First, the original skin cells converted directly into brain cells instead of reverting to stem cells first. Cells that first convert to stem cells come with the risk of forming other types of cells, which can cause complications. Secondly, the brain cells that were created were all a specific type. Targeting and producing a specific type of brain cell could help in studying specific brain diseases such as Huntington’s Disease.

Previous research has shown that exposing skin cells to RNA molecules, miR-9 and miR-124 has the programming potential to create different types of brain cells. In the new study, the researchers used an environment similar to that of brain cells. Then, by fine tuning a cocktail of chemical signals between the skin cells and RNA molecules, the team was able to specifically target and create spiny neuron cells.

Although the study was successful in mouse trials, the exact mechanisms by which the brain cells were created are still being explored. The team is currently studying skin cells from those with Huntington’s disease, a disease that degenerates mental ability and causes involuntary movements,

Potential Ebola vaccine remained untested on humans

In the middle of 2005, Canadian and American researchers that tested Ebola vaccine and found a solution that they say was 100 percent effective on monkeys. Published in Nature Medicine, the results then were so exciting that researchers planned to begin human trials by 2007, and have a product ready for market three years after that.

But the immense costs of clinical trials and production, paired with a supply that did not meet the demand for an Ebola vaccine at the time halted any further development. The Ebola virus then only affected a few hundred people worldwide, but has now spread to becoming fatal for more than 5,000 West Africans. It is only now with the rising threat of Ebola to several countries, that basic clinical trials have begun, and governments are breaking the bank to find a cure.

Today, The World Health Organization (WHO) is expected to explain the details of two large-scale patient studies, planned to take place in West Africa soon.

The main reason an Ebola vaccine wasn’t tested on humans sooner was economics. Thomas W. Geisbert, a key developer for the original vaccine, says, “There’s never been a big market for Ebola vaccines.” He told the New York Times, “so big pharma, who are they going to sell it to?” Director of vaccine research at Vanderbilt University, Dr. James E. Crowe also notes that researchers in 2005 may have experienced what he calls a “biotech valley of death,” where drug companies refuse to fund remarkable science. Dr. Crowe adds, “People invest in order to get money back.”

The 2005 vaccine, made by transplanting a gene from a vesicular stomatitis virus (V.S.V.), with an Ebola virus gene, was originally patented by the Canadian government and licensed in Iowa as VSV-EBOV in 2010. Currently, safety tests have begun for both VSV-EBOV and another vaccine which uses a cold virus that affects chimpanzees. Several other vaccines are expected to begin trials next year.

Safety officials are closely monitoring the side effects of V.S.V. vaccines, which contain live viruses. Once treatments pass the safety tests, officials will have to make the choice of whether to complete trials by traditional means, or find a more rapid method.

First plastic surgery: Oct. 23, 1814

Joseph Carpue, a surgeon at Duke of York’s Hospital in Chelsea, England introduces cosmetic surgery to western medicine as he reconstructs the nose of a young soldier. Twenty years earlier, Carpue had read a magazine article describing procedures developed in India to rebuild mutilated noses and had traveled there to learn more about the procedure. Upon returning to England, he decides to try it himself, selecting a patient whose nose had been eaten away by mercury, a treatment for some diseases at the time.

Carpue cuts a strip of skin from the young man’s forehead, twists it, folds it down over the nasal area and sews it into place. For several days, the patient, his face completely bandaged, was required to lay on his back and remain immobile. When Carpue finally removed the bandages, he is said to have exclaimed, “My God, there is a nose.”

The operation was considered a great success. Because the flap of skin for the new nose came from the patient himself, his body accepted the graft and there was little scarring. Soon, Carpue repeated the procedure on another injured soldier and then published a book titled, “An Account of Two Successful Operations for Restoring a Lost Nose from the Integument of the Forehead.”

Two years later, in 1818—long before plastics were invented–German surgeon Carl Von Graefe uses the word “plastic” to describe reconstructive surgery, taking it from the Greek word “plastikos,” meaning to fold or give form.

With the development of anesthesia and more sterile surgical techniques, the notion of performing surgery for purely cosmetic reason began to emerge during the 19th century and in 1891, an American doctor named John Roe performed the first nose job that wasn’t to repair injured or damaged anatomy.

The first cosmetic facelift was performed in Berlin in 1901 by German surgeon Eugen Hollander after an elderly Polish aristocrat asked him to “lift her cheeks and the corners of her mouth.” Instead of cutting out isolated pieces of skin, Hollander is believed to be the first doctor to use the technique of cutting the skin around and under the ears and “lifting” it to smooth wrinkles on the face. The first tummy tucks also were done at the turn of the 20th century, although the early version of the procedure resulted in patients losing their belly buttons.

The quality of cosmetic surgery improved dramatically after World War I, as surgeons applied practices and techniques learned through the treatment of horrific facial wounds suffered by soldiers in trench warfare. At the same time, plastic surgeons formed professional associations and established regulations that bolstered the field’s reputation and made people less likely to associate cosmetic surgery with quackery.

World War II brought more advances. Surgeons developed techniques to rebuild entire limbs and do extensive skin grafts, for instance. And after the war, in line with a cultural focus on staying young, plastic surgeons began marketing their skills toward particular groups—especially middle-aged women largely finished with raising families. By the 1960s, plastic surgery was fully integrated into the medical establishment.

Today, 200 years after Joseph Carpue introduced nose reconstruction to western medicine, an average of 350,000 Americans get nose jobs every year.

Y chromosone health linked to cancer risk in men

New research focused on the male Y chromosome finds that men who had lost part of their Y chromosome died on average 5.5 years earlier than those who had not.

To conduct their study, scientists at the University of Sweden looked at blood tests in more than 1,000 men aged over 70 to determine Y chromosome loss. They found that men with a “significant amount” of loss died earlier and that loss of the Y chromosome was associated with general risk of death in 637 out of the group of men and risk of death due to non-blood related cancer in 132 of the cases.

The scientists note that many people think the Y chromosome only contains genes involved in sex determination and sperm production, but, as the new research shows, these genes have other important functions, such as possibly playing a role in preventing cancerous tumors. The findings also show that blood tests looking at the state of the Y chromosome could help predict a man’s risk of cancer.

Drugmakers team up to speed Ebola vaccine

In response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, two of the world’s largest drug companies plan to do a rare thing–they will work together to make sure vaccines can be ready for use next year.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in the U.K. and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) in the U.S. are both working on developing a vaccine, but have agreed to cooperate to help remove any supply bottlenecks. The European Union is expected to announce a commitment of 200 million euros ($250 million), which will go towards financing clinical trials of three experimental vaccines.

The first doses of GSK’s Ebola vaccine are expected to be ready late this year, and the World Health Organization (WHO) hopes that tens of thousands of people in West Africa, including health care workers, can start receiving vaccines in January as part of large-scale clinical trials. J&J, meanwhile, is, through a $200 million commitment, accelerating its research and hopes to have 250,000 doses of its vaccine ready by May.

J&J’s vaccine consists of two injections: one to prime the immune system and a second to boost the response. It uses a common cold virus, called an adenovirus, to carry its medication. The GSK vaccine, on the other hand, is in testing as a single shot.

While the safety and effectiveness of J&J’s and other experimental vaccines have yet to be proven, researchers find them to be promising since they’ve worked on macaque monkeys.